Along with the monthly housing starts for January last week, the Census Bureau released Housing Units Started by Purpose and Design through Q4 2021.
This graph shows the NSA quarterly intent for four start categories since 1975: single family built for sale, owner built (includes contractor built for owner), starts built for rent, and condos built for sale.
Single family starts built for sale (red) were down 9% in Q4 2021 compared to Q4 2020.
Owner built starts (orange) were up 11% year-over-year.
Condos built for sale increased and are still low.
The ‘units built for rent’ (blue) and were up 35% in Q4 2021 compared to Q4 2020.
The recent housing boom had been mostly in single family homes ‘built for sale’, but ‘built for rent’ has been picking up.